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A/N: Please understand that my muse is a fickle creature. She'll start a project and that's all she can think about for months on end and then she'll lose interest, moving on to a new obsession. I'm trying to finish, but I've been... you know... Well, I've gotten a case of writer's diarhea again (when my words come out so quickly they can hardly reach the trash can fast enough) so let's hope I can keep rolling for a while. Again, this isn't the best thing that I've ever written, but at least the plot's coming along...

Chapter 12: Casualties

Running, in Mia's opinion, was an unnatural act. It was her honest belief that it should never be done, save from enemies, vicious creatures, and to the bathroom.

It wasn’t only getting lost that she was doing a lot more of recently.

And I suppose I won’t be doing any less of it any time soon, she thought as she fled as fast as her legs could carry her through the maze of storage containers. She felt like a rat that had been dropped into a maze.

Only instead of looking for a piece of cheese, she was running away from a vampire that seemed to appear out of nowhere every time she turned a corner. She also had the horrible feeling that she was being herded around in circles until she got too tired to run anymore.

She also had the horrible feeling it wouldn’t take very much longer.

Oh, why had she not just asked for help? In hindsight, Alucard could have helped. He hadn’t like the orders to stay put any more than she had… He probably would have been happy to watch her back.

And now something was breathing down her neck, thirsting for more blood. Now she was running for her life, looking over her shoulder to make sure that the vampiress wasn’t right behind her.

Now she was getting clotheslined by a long box stacked on top of two smaller ones so that it hung just low enough across the lane she was running down that when her head smacked into it, the rest of her body kept going, effectively sweeping her legs out from under her and landing on her a**.

Lights burst in front of her eyes. All she could see was a handwritten sign posted on the box reading simply, “Watch your head.” Now you tell me, she thought.

Giggles exploded nearby—not just giggles, but roaring laughter. “That made my night!” the vampire girl snickered from a location Mia was too dazed to identify. “Seriously, that was the funniest thing I’ve seen since Hitler. And trust me…” The girl suddenly appeared, standing over Mia. “Hitler was a hilarious guy.”

The vampire reached down and grabbed the front of Mia’s uniform, hauling her upright with little visible effort. “Not intentionally, mind you,” she added. “And that’s what made it funnier.”

Mia’s head was reeling too much to say anything back.

“I’m afraid this’ll probably hurt,” said the undead girl with a forced look of pity. “But if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think a ghoul’s going to remember. I technically should keep you as a bargaining chip, but… I’m still feeling a little thirsty.”

She leaned forward. Mia felt the vampire’s teeth rest briefly on her pulse point for a moment, sharp as needles. And then there was a sharp pain.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Alucard’s body reformed on the other side of the wall, upright and refined. He took a quick glance around, sending out invisible tendrils of his essence. There was Police Girl, moving quickly across the warehouse. There was the space alien… right next to a vampiric presence.

Hurry please, Police Girl, he told his fledgling sternly.

I’m trying, master, she responded, clearly restraining herself from throwing back a snappish remark.

In the meantime, there was something else on Alucard’s mind. Something familiar that he hadn’t felt in three hundred years…

“Ah,” said a female voice behind him. “The Hellsing vampire.”

Well, that he hadn’t been expecting. It wasn’t possible. He had only ever known one person with enough power to block out his ability to sense… And she was gone. He turned slowly. “You!” he said.

The girl he was faced with was familiar, about sixteen with long black hair, her red eyes filled with surprise. “No,” she whispered. “No way.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

God, her blood tasted like candy!

Neko grinned with insane delight, accidentally letting some of the red liquid spill down her cheek. Did the girl eat nothing but sugar?! It was like eating marshmallows—except she wouldn’t regret it that morning when she couldn’t sleep for the stomach ache she’d have with the human food.

The girl whimpered pathetically, trying to pull away, but even for a human she was wimpy. What the heck was a weakling like her doing walking into a vampire nest?

A vampiric presence set something inside Neko off like a alarm system. A presence that didn’t belong to her sister.

Growling at the annoyance, she pushed the human away and to the ground. The blonde gasped and crawled away a little, head probably spinning a little from loss of blood. Neko looked up and around towards the presence.

There was another blonde girl, this one older and a vampire, perched on top of a shipping container, a gigantic rocket launcher longer than she was tall pointed directly at Neko.

“Back away from the girl slowly,” the new vampire snarled dangerously.

Neko grinned brightly. “Cool gun! What’s it got in it, depleted uranium? Well if it does, you’re going to kill the human girl if you shoot that thing at me. Which you wouldn’t care about… if you’re the Hellsing vampire. Are you?”

The woman paused a moment, red eyes thoughtful. “I am,” she eventually responded, a look of solidity in her eyes.

The black-haired vampiress frowned, taking a moment to feel out the newcomer’s power. Her eyebrows shot up in disbelief. “There’s no way!” she shouted, cracking up. “You haven’t even tasted blood yet! You’re not a vampire, you’re a fledgling! Who’s your sire?”

The blonde woman hissed. “Why do you care? I am the Hellsing vampire. I choose not to drink blood.”

“Whatever you say, human-lover,” Neko said with a nonchalant shrug. “You can’t touch me, not while I’ve got the girl right next to me.”

Rising, the second vampire glared at the first, holding her gargantuan rocket launcher in one hand. “I have a name,” she growled. “It’s Seras Victoria. And I am not about to back off because of your terrible attempts at jerking me around!!”

And then she hefted the rocket launcher and hurled it like a lance. It flew true, heading directly and dangerously towards the older vampire. She jumped out of the way and the gun hit the ground with the force of a freight train. It must have been made of some pretty strong stuff because it hit the ground and bounced away like a soda can.

Seras, meanwhile, had leapt from her perch after Neko. The two women met in midair, commencing a quick scuffle—almost to fast to see—resulting in Seras being hurled to the ground. She recovered just as Neko touched ground and dove on the elder vampire.

To Mia, who had scooted off to a reasonably safe distance to heal her neck, it was like watching a fox fighting with a hunting hound—with all attendant hissing and angry snarls. Short and vicious periods of violent hand to hand combat were punctuated with moments of circling each other, staring each other down, snarling. To her dizzy and not-so-present mind, it was hypnotizing.

Mia distractedly watched as the black-haired vampire delivered a roundhouse kick to Seras’ chest, blowing her back into a container. The stranger vampire swooped down on the blonde, pulling her arm back as if to plunge her hand into Seras’ body and pull out her heart…

“Stop.”

Both fighters froze as if someone had pressed the pause button on a television screen. The command was from a male voice, Alucard’s. Everyone looked over to see Alucard sweeping calmly down the aisle, a young woman in slightly torn jeans and a hoodie behind him.

“Master!” Seras shouted, surprised.

The short-haired vampiress beamed. “That’s more like it! Thanks for holding off on killing him, Halo.”

The new girl, apparently Halo, looked stunned. “Neko!” she shouted scoldingly. “Don’t you recognize him?”

Pause. “Nope. Never seen him before in my life.”

Alucard chuckled in a harassed sort of way. “I suppose I have changed since we last met,” he allowed, removing his sunglasses.

Another pause. The teenaged vampire gaped in recognition. “Dad?!” she shouted.